The Association of Renewable Energy Companies (APPA Renovables) deeply regrets the failure to validate Royal Decree-Law 7/2025, which represented an urgent and necessary response to the challenges of the current electricity system. The decision by the Congress of Deputies blocks key advances long awaited by the entire energy sector. Particularly serious is the failure to adapt the milestones to the reality of demand developments, as well as the lack of support for storage and thermal renewables.

Risk of collapse due to inadequate administrative milestones

Without modifying the fifth milestone and the associated deadlines, numerous projects will be blocked by procedures that do not reflect the reality of technological or administrative development. Many of these projects are paralyzed by precautionary measures used by anti-renewable energy lobby groups, and Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 suspended administrative deadlines in these cases.

Furthermore, if the milestones are not adapted to the reality of the sector, this bottleneck could lead to a collapse in the integration process of new renewable capacity, forcing installation rates to exceed those that governments can effectively address.

Increased imbalances and hours at zero and negative prices

With more renewable generation and no parallel measures to stimulate demand, the electricity market will suffer even more imbalances. If in recent years we have been seeing the famous “duck curve” (very low or even negative wholesale market prices during the middle of the day and sharp increases in the evening), this effect will multiply in the coming years.

Without boosting demand and storage, or making the introduction of renewables more flexible in the future, the number of hours spent at zero and negative prices in the wholesale electricity market—when part of renewable generation is wasted—will increase, jeopardizing the profitability and continuity of already operating projects.

Self-consumption and storage are slowed down

Systems such as self-consumption managers and the need to move toward a participatory energy model will be unable to be implemented. The lack of regulatory changes will continue to limit the development of collective self-consumption in Spain, a particularly serious issue considering that nearly two-thirds of the population live in residential communities.

Likewise, the push for storage—especially pumped storage, which is sustainable and manageable—is on hold, hampering efficient and flexible system management and preventing better integration of more resource-dependent renewables such as wind and photovoltaic.

A missed opportunity for renewable leadership

Spain, which reached nearly 57% renewable electricity use in 2024, needed this regulatory step to consolidate its European leadership in the energy transition, especially at a time when, following the zero energy impact of April 28, measures are urgently needed to ensure the electricity supply for the future.

This decision by Congress not to approve the regulation slows the momentum that renewables had given to our electricity system and adds regulatory uncertainty to a sector that has already proven to be key to the national economy and the fight against climate change, effectively reducing fossil fuel imports, the price of electricity, and emissions from the electricity sector.